This is a short user-review of the Minolta MD 16mm f2.8 Fisheye lens, with a selection of images taken using both Minolta film and also Leica digital cameras. This is the first time that I have used a fish-eye lens, with its immense barrel distortion creating unusually distorted images. This particular lens completely fills the full 35mm rectangular frame, with the image diagonal spanning a full 180 degree field of view.
Three string chairs, at a cafe on the beachfront near Barceloneta. Minolta XDs with MC 24mm f2.8 and Ilford HP5+ processed in HC110 1+63 (dilution B).
The Design Museum, Barcelona. The wooden scaffold is a sun-shade from the adjacent square. Minolta XDs with MC 24mm f2.8 on Ilford HP5+ processed in HC110.
Old books at the Els Encants market, Barcelona. This is a market whose origins date back to the 14th century, yet which is now housed in a new ultra modern permanent building. Despite the architecture, the market retains much of the character that you might expect if you were to mix a 14th century trading style with 21st century goods. The aim was to capture some candid images of people browsing the second hand books, furniture, ceramics and general bric-a-brak:
Three images of the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona. Still very unsure if this is inspired or terrifying architecture, although all I can think of when I see its military grey straight walls is all those 70’s dystopian science-fiction futures. All images shot on HP5+ with the Minolta XDs and 24mm lens, for a change of perspective.
An image of the construction work at the back of the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria in central Barcelona. The work to construct an underground car-park was completed some time ago and the surface is now nearing completion. It is quite impressive that such a huge amount of work has been undertaken while the main market remained open. Minolta XD-s with MC 24mm f2.8 and Kodak Ektar 100, processed in to black and white.
What better way to mark the 100th post here but with a photograph of people browsing the second-hand books and magazines at the Sant Antoni Sunday Book Market, Barcelona. The transition from traditional printed matter to online sources is radically transforming almost all media that we use today. In modern parlance, people no longer simply read books, they “consume content” – a change in terminology that embraces both the increasing number of different media forms and also the notion of disposable hyper-consumption. As media moves increasingly online it becomes a pick-and-choose buffet of short snacks that […]
Bicing cyclists, Barcelona. Minolta XD-s with 50mm and Fuji C200 film. This was shot with the lens nearly wide open by pre-focussing on the ground before the cycles arrived.
Plaça Catalunya, Barcelona. Minolta XD-s with 50mm and Fuji C200 film.
Career de Petritxol, Barcelona. Minolta XD-s with 50mm f1.4 and Fuji C200. Shot using zone focusing.
I am gradually catching up with processing the recent film shots and scanning the results. Rather than posting the better images I thought that it might be fun to first post some of the disasters and try to understand what when wrong. All the images here were taken with the Minolta XD-s using Fuji C200 colour film. The first image (above) has a seriously 70’s vibe to it thanks to an incredible amount of unintended noise – the result of a seriously underexposed image. When shooting with a modern digital camera you […]
In sudden burst of enthusiasm to try something slightly different, I have dusted-off the old Minolta XD-s and shot a roll of Ilford HP5. All the images here were taken using the Minolta MD 50mm f1.4 lens. There were three aims: to check if the camera light seals are still good enough (the camera is more than 30 years old…) to see if I can still figure out how to focus manually to see of the effect of the smaller camera on subjects… These images were shot in about an hour […]
Transient Eye 